Alfred Noyes ; 9-16-1880 to 6-28-1958

By:Tucker, Jonathan, and Zach

Alfred Noyes wrote short stories, plays novels, criticism, and biography.
  • Alfred Noyes was famous in the 1900's and he expresses love in the sea in his poems
  • Alfred Noyes became a christain in 1927
  • 1905-The Forest of Wild Thyme 1907-The Flower of Old Japan Where some other poems of his.
  • Alfred Noyes’ most famous poem is the epic, “Drake” about the sea and Elizabethan tradition.
  • Born in Wolverhampton, England, and died on the Isle of Wight.
  • Noyes attended Exeter College, Oxford, but left before he earned a degree.
  • Another poem Noyes wrote is the epic, “The Torchbearers” (1922)
  • In 1907, Noyes married Garnett Daniels, and they had three children.
  • Increasing popularity allowed the family to live off royalty checks.
  • Accepted a teaching position at Princeton University, and he taught English Literature.
  • Watchers of the Sky, 1922; The Book of Earth, 1925; and The Last Voyage, 1930, are the three parts of “The Torchbearers.”
Alfred Noyes
Alfred Noyes
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The Highwayman
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The highwayman2


PART ONE

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inndoor.

He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of claret velvet, and breeches of brown doeskin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

highwayman3.jpg
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dard inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like moldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and heard the robber say--

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.

Work Cited

Noyes, Alfred. Collected Poems. New York: Frederick A.
Stokes Company, 1913

Faludi, Robert. The Highwayman. 2007. 28 Mar. 2011
<http://www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html>

Button, Mike. The Highwayman. 2008. 31 Mar. 2011
<http://duttonart.net/main/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/highwayman.jpg>

Edwards, Sally. The Highwayman. 2010. 28 Jan. 2011
http://www.wishworks.co.uk/puppet-shows/the-highwayman.htm

Photostory

First part: Tucker
Second: Johnothan
Third: Zach